Including samples of Gaelic literature in translation, this is a collection of Irish poetry from the age of Swift to the middle of the 20th century. Major names include Aogan O Rathaille, Jonathan Swift, Oliver Goldsmith, Henrietta Battier, James Clarence Mangan, Lady Wilde, anonymous writers on famine and terror, Oscar Wilde, W.B. Yeats and some of his survivors. Disinterring a tradition of enlightened outrage, the editor reconstructs a distinctively Irish poetic voice down through the centuries. Devoted to humane values yet wise to the duplicity of all self-proclaimed virtue, their voice has repeatedly adopted the mask of dramatic ferocity, with Swift's savage indignation setting the tone.